Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Affecting The Level Of Grief Experienced By Men Whose Female Partner Died In The United States, Keona C. Lee

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Grief is an emotional reaction to the loss of a loved one through death. Although grief is a universal human experience, its perspective is unique, and research has often ignored the varied experiences of racial/ethnic and cultural groups, particularly men of color in the United States. The purpose of this quantitative study was to measure the level of grief experienced by men whose female partner died and to determine whether ethnicity, having a prior mental health diagnosis, social support, and traumatic or anticipated loss significantly impacted their level of grief. The study was guided by the social-ecological model to explain …

Stimulus-Driven Cerebrospinal Fluid Dynamics Is Impaired In Glaucoma Patients, Ji Won Bang, Carlos Parra, Kevin Yu, Hyun Seo Lee, Gadi Wollstein, Joel Schuman, Kevin Chan

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), partly driven by sensory stimulation, is crucial for maintaining homeostasis and clearing metabolic waste. Whether such stimulus-driven CSF flow is disrupted in age-related neurodegenerative diseases of the visual system remains unclear. This study examined the CSF flow during visual stimulation in glaucoma patients and healthy older adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In glaucoma, CSF inflow becomes progressively decoupled from the visually evoked blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) response. Specifically, the characteristic stimulus-locked CSF patterns, which decrease after stimulus onset and increase after offset, diminish with disease severity. Mediation analysis suggests this flattened CSF pattern is driven by a flatter …

A Phase 1, First-In-Human, Dose Escalation Study Of Jnj-80038114, A Psmaxcd3 Bispecific Antibody, In Participants With Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer, Andrew Hudson, Anuradha Jayaram, Benjamin Garmezy, Nicholas Zorko, Kevin Zarrabi, Ligi Mathews, Brent Rupnow, Mengjie Li, Debopriya Ghosh, Karen Urtishak, Peter Francis, Sherry Wang, Edward Attiyeh, Johann De Bono

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) has been identified as a therapeutic target for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). The recent success of radioligands targeting PSMA spurred development of new PSMA-targeting agents including immunotherapy. JNJ-80038114 is a bispecific antibody that binds PSMA on tumor cells and CD3 on T cells to induce anti-tumor activity.

METHODS: This was a phase 1, open-label, multicenter study of JNJ-80038114 in participants with mCRPC and ≥ 1 prior systemic therapy. JNJ-80038114 was administered subcutaneously every 3 weeks (Q3W), starting at 0.1 mg. The primary endpoint was safety. Secondary endpoints included pharmacokinetics (PK), immunogenicity, and prostate-specific antigen …

Music Therapy Versus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Via Telehealth For Anxiety In Survivors Of Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Kevin T. Liou, Joke Bradt, M. Beatriz Currier, Raymond Baser, Katherine Panageas, Jodi Macleod, Desiree Walker, Susan Q. Li, Ana Maria Lopez, Kelly Mcconnell, Jun J. Mao

Department of Medical Oncology Faculty Papers

PURPOSE: Anxiety is prevalent, disruptive, and undertreated among survivors of cancer. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the first-line treatment, but not all individuals have access, respond to treatment, or prefer this option because of stigma. Music therapy is effective for short-term anxiety reduction, but it is unknown whether it is noninferior to first-line CBT for long-term anxiety reduction.

METHODS: This comparative effectiveness trial randomly assigned English- or Spanish-speaking survivors of cancer to seven weekly telehealth sessions of music therapy or CBT. The coprimary end points were changes in the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) anxiety score at weeks 8 …

Knockrbp: An Integrated Multi-Omics Database Of Functional Perturbation Profiles For Rna-Binding Proteins, Mengyuan Yang, Jiawei Li, Jiajia Liu, Xingzheng Lu, Xiaobo Zhou, Yungang Xu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

RNA-binding proteins (RBPs) regulate diverse post-transcriptional processes, yet their functional impacts across multiple molecular layers remain incompletely characterized. KnockRBP (https://knockrbp.xu-bioinfo.com) is presented as a comprehensive, multi-omics database systematically cataloging regulatory changes resulting from genetic perturbation of RBPs. The resource integrates 1453 datasets from GEO, ENA, and ENCORE, encompassing RNA-seq, Ribo-seq, microRNA (miRNA)-seq, and 3'RACE-seq across 639 RBPs, 182 cell lines, and 61 diseases. Regulatory outcomes covered include alternative splicing, alternative polyadenylation, RNA editing, transcript abundance, translation efficiency, and miRNA expression, with all events processed through standardized analytical pipelines and annotated with open reading frame consequences, predicted loss-of-function impacts, and established …

Peripheral Nerve Injury Reduces Macrophage Efferocytosis To Facilitate Neuropathic Pain, Vipul K Pandey, Tusar K Acharya, Kendal F Willcox, Sandeep Dembla, Ajeena Ramanujan, Anamaria R Grieco, Younus A Zuberi, Rajasekaran Mahalingam, Andrew J Shepherd, Cobi J Heijnen, Peter M Grace

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

For reasons not fully understood, proresolving immune processes sometimes fail to engage after peripheral nerve injury (PNI), leading to enhanced neuropathic pain and inflammation. Here, we implicate reduced efferocytosis due to proteolytic cleavage of surface MER tyrosine kinase (MERTK) from macrophages at the site of PNI. After PNI, the proportion of macrophages expressing MERTK progressively decreased, while soluble (cleaved) MER increased. Using male and female knock-in mice encoding cleavage-resistant Mertk, we demonstrated that cleavage of MERTK from macrophages at the PNI site led to exaggerated pain-related behaviors. PNI-induced hyperactivity of TRPV1+ sensory neurons and damage to myelin and myelinated …

Spatial2gwas: A Database For Linking Spatial Transcriptomic Regions With Gwas Traits, Xi Hu, Aoqi Wang, Huan Yu, Pora Kim, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Spatial heterogeneity of gene expression within tissue regions has a critical influence on biological functions, thereby affecting disease pathogenesis. However, systematic associations between spatially resolved transcriptomes and phenotypes, especially in complex diseases, remain underexplored. Here, we developed spatial2GWAS (http://www.spatial2gwas.cn), a comprehensive resource linking spatial transcriptomic (ST) regions with GWAS traits. In the database, we collected 1196 ST slices (human and mouse) from five technologies and 812 GWAS traits spanning 18 phenotype categories and identified 29 701 ST slice-GWAS trait pairs containing 47 492 significant regions. Functional analyses reveal distinct patterns of cell type composition, gene expression, GO/KEGG pathway activation, and …

Modality-Agnostic, Patient-Specific Digital Twins Modeling Temporally Varying Digestive Motion, Jorge Tapias Gomez, Nishant Nadkarni, Lando S Bosma, Jue Jiang, Ergys D Subashi, William P Segars, James M Balter, Mert R Sabuncu, Neelam Tyagi, Harini Veeraraghavan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

N-Palmitoyl Glutamine Is A Candidate Mediator Of Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Jeremy M Robbins, Mark Benson, Anthony R P Verkerke, Gaurav Tiwari, Shuliang Deng, Prashant Rao, Usman A Tahir, Julian Avila-Pacheco, Xu Shi, Yuntian Guan, Foje-Geh Tendoh, Jacob L Barber, Patricia E Miller, Andrew S Perry, Michael E Hall, Alexis C Wood, Kent D Taylor, Wendy S Post, Stephen S Rich, Matthew Nayor, James G Wilson, Gregory D Lewis, Ravi V Shah, Jerome I Rotter, Scott A Summers, Laura M Raffield, Shingo Kajimura, Claude Bouchard, Clary B Clish, Mark A Sarzynski, Robert E Gerszten

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness is an integrative measure of cardiometabolic health and predictor of survival, yet little is known about its molecular underpinnings. Small molecule metabolites and lipids are increasingly recognized as exercise-stimulated signaling molecules and candidate molecular transducers of cardiorespiratory fitness.

Methods: We performed nontargeted liquid chromatography mass spectrometry-based plasma metabolomics in 654 participants (mean age, 35 years; 55% women) from the HERITAGE Family Study (Health, Risk Factors, Exercise Training, and Genetics) who had cardiorespiratory fitness (maximal oxygen uptake [VO2max]) measured by cardiopulmonary exercise testing and underwent 20 weeks of supervised endurance training. Metabolite-VO2max relationships were assessed using linear regression …

Loss Of Twist1 Leads To Disruption Of Ciliary Length, Endocytic Vesicle Dynamics, And Cell-Cell Junctions During Neural Tube Formation, Derrick Thomas, Brittany M Hufft-Martinez, Zarna Lalwani, Vi Pham, Mary Elmeniawi, An J Tran, Jianming Xu, Irfan Saadi, Walid D Fakhouri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Endocytosis constitutes a fundamental cellular process governing development through coordinated regulation of plasma membrane remodeling and ciliogenesis, processes essential for cell shape changes and tissue development. Although Twist1 null embryos display complete cranial neural tube (NT) closure defects and conditional knockout in neuroectoderm disrupts cranial neural crest cell fate determination and delamination, the function of TWIST1 in NT morphogenesis remains unknown. We investigated the basis underlying neuroectodermal morphological abnormalities in TWIST1 mutant embryos, specifically the formation of ectopic lateral bending points and cellular disorganization, by examining Twist1's role in cilia formation, adherens junction integrity, and endocytic vesicle dynamics.

Results: …

Predicting Sepsis In Heart Failure Patients Supported By Left Ventricular Assist Devices: The Role Of Ve-Cadherin And Adam10, Shiyi Li, Iván Murrieta-Álvarez, Ismael Garcia, Katherine V Nordick, Rishav Bhattacharya, Shreyo Ghosh, Ronald A Shaju, Adel M Hassan, Carl P Walther, Camila Hochman-Mendez, Alexis E Shafii, Kenneth K Liao, Nandan K Mondal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Vascular endothelial cadherin (VE-Cadherin) is a major endothelial adhesion molecule and can be cleaved explicitly by metalloproteinase domain-containing protein 10 (ADAM10). Vascular hyperpermeability may contribute to a greater susceptibility to sepsis in left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support patients. We aim to evaluate the efficacy of VE-Cadherin and ADAM10 for predicting sepsis in LVAD patients. We prospectively recruited 50 patients with advanced heart failure receiving LVAD therapy. Baseline and weekly postoperative blood samples (weeks 1-4) were collected, and plasma VE-cadherin and ADAM10 levels were measured. Sepsis occurred in 9 of 50 patients (18.0%). Across all sampling points, plasma VE-cadherin and …

Erratum For Nachman Et Al., “Increased Fungal Burden In The Gastrointestinal Tract Of Brain-Dead Organ Donors”, Erika J Nachman, Colleen K Ardis, A Kyle B Ardis, Javier Nieto, Madeline M Bresson, Clare M Robertson, Maggie N Seale, Nora M Villafuerte, Zhe Lyu, Eva C Preisner, Heather A Danhof, Sara C Di Rienzi, Yolanda T Becker, Robert A Britton

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Bio-Adrenomedullin Predicts Death And Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events In Cardiac Amyloidosis: A Cross-Continental Multicenter Study, Maximilian L Müller, Fabian Knebel, Katrin Hahn, Janin Schulte, Birte Arlt, Oliver Hartmann, Kaitlin M S Moore, Seiji Takashio, Yasuhiro Izumiya, Joshua D Mitchell, Kenichi Tsujita, Ulf Landmesser, Bettina Heidecker

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Bio-ADM (bioactive adrenomedullin) is a vasoactive peptide hormone that predicts clinical outcomes in heart failure-the main driver of adverse outcomes in cardiac amyloidosis (CA). This prospective observational study sought to assess the prognostic role of bio-ADM in CA.

METHODS: Patients with CA were enrolled from amyloid centers in Germany (observation cohort), Japan, and the United States (combined validation cohort). Bio-ADM was quantified using the sphingotest bio-ADM assay. Associations of bio-ADM with all-cause death and major adverse cardiovascular events over 2 years were assessed using Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses. Likelihood ratio chi-square tests for nested models evaluated whether adding …

Intravenous Thrombolysis In Patients On Direct Oral Anticoagulants: Analysis Of The Get With The Guidelines Stroke Registry, Shadi Yaghi, Opeolu Adeoye, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a proven effective treatment. Whether thrombolysis in patients with AIS with recent direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) use is safe and efficacious is not well established. We aimed to compare outcomes of patients with AIS and recent DOAC use who received thrombolysis to those otherwise eligible but excluded due to recent DOAC use.

METHODS: This study included patients for the GWTG (Get With The Guidelines) registry with a diagnosis of AIS within 4.5 hours from last known normal, on a DOAC, and either (1) received intravenous thrombolysis, or (2) were excluded from …

Association Between Monoclonal Gammopathy Of Undetermined Significance And Cardiovascular Disease Risk: A Veterans Health Administration Study, Tzeyu L Michaud, Mei Wang, Daphne R Friedman, Lawrence Liu, Theodore S Thomas, Kristen M Sanfilippo, Graham A Colditz, Martin W Schoen, Su-Hsin Chang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, its potential to provide additional prognostic information beyond traditional CVD risk assessments remains unknown. This study aimed to examine the association between MGUS and incident CVD and to determine whether MGUS status offers additional prognostic value beyond the established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk calculation.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, matched observational study using 2010 to 2021 Veterans Health Administration data. MGUS status, confirmed through a validated natural language processing algorithm, were 1:5 matched to individuals without MGUS. The outcome of interest was …

The Igvf Catalog-From Genetic Variation To Function, Daofeng Li, Shane Liu, Wenjin Zhang, Juan F Macias-Velasco, Tianjie Liu, Sarah Cody, Lucinda Antonacci-Fulton, Ting Wang, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Genomic variation between individuals is essential for understanding how differences in the genome sequence affect molecular and cellular processes. The Impact of Genomic Variation on Function (IGVF) Consortium aims to uncover the relationships among genomic variation, genome function, and phenotypes by combining experimental techniques, such as single-cell mapping and genomic perturbation assays, with computational approaches such as machine learning-based predictive modeling. The IGVF Data and Administrative Coordinating Centers collect, analyze, and disseminate data and results from across the consortium through an open-source platform called the IGVF Catalog. This resource includes, but is not limited to, data on the effects of …

Mass Spectrometry Footprinting Reveals How Kinetic Stabilizers Counteract Transthyretin Dynamics Altered By Pathogenic Mutations, Francisca Pinheiro, Ravi Kant, Saketh Chemuru, Nathalia Varejão, Adrián Velázquez-Campoy, David Reverter, Irantzu Pallarès, Michael L Gross, Salvador Ventura

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The aggregation of transthyretin (TTR) results in life-threatening transthyretin amyloidosis. Familial forms of the disease arise from point mutations that destabilize the TTR tetramer, leading to its dissociation and/or monomer unfolding and subsequent formation of amyloid fibrils. Small molecules that kinetically stabilize the native tetramer effectively inhibit this aggregation. Although over 300 X-ray crystal structures of TTR have been determined, these data refer to a static structure and do not capture the conformational effects of mutations and ligand binding. Here, we demonstrate that hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) and fast photochemical oxidation of proteins (FPOP) coupled with mass spectrometry (MS) offer critical …

Polymer Conformational Entropy As The Driver Of Complex Coacervation, Tommaso Inzani, Giovanni Nava, Marco Buscaglia, Andrea Soranno, Alessandro Gori, Greta Bergamaschi, Samir Suweis, Amos Maritan, Tommaso Bellini

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Understanding the mechanisms leading to complex coacervation is a fundamental challenge in biomolecular sciences. Here, we explored the condensation transition and pretransitional behavior of an archetypal system consisting of polyuridylic acid chains (PolyU) and short cationic peptides in buffered aqueous solutions. By combining static and dynamic light scattering with confocal microscopy, we determined the location of the transition and the partitioning of PolyU and peptides between the coexisting phases as a function of the total peptides/PolyU ratio. We find that upon adding peptides in the system, the size of PolyU coils in the single-phase region is progressively reduced by peptide-mediated …

What Is The Psychological And Cognitive Impact Of Returning Alzheimer Disease Dementia Research Results To Healthy Research Participants? A Delayed-Start Randomised Clinical Trial Protocol For The Weshare Study (Washington University Study Of Having Alzheimer Disease), Sarah M Hartz, Spondita Goswami, Amy Oliver, Alissa Evans, Sacha Jackson, Erin Linnenbringer, Krista M Moulder, John C Morris, Jessica Mozersky

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Returning research results that indicate risk of Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia-a disease for which no meaningful treatments or cure exist-to cognitively normal participants is controversial. AD is thought to begin many years before clinical signs and symptoms begin. During this time, individuals are cognitively normal but have biomarkers that indicate pathophysiological changes in the brain. With this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of returning research results on cognitively normal participants recruited from a longitudinal observational cohort on ageing at the Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Centre (Knight ADRC) at Washington University in St. Louis.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Our …

Noda News January 2026

New Orleans Dental Association News

New Orleans Dental Association (NODA) News includes regular columns with regional news impacting the New Orleans membership including: columns from the President and Executive Director, feature articles relating to the field of dentistry, association events and upcoming activities, component news, continuing education opportunities, and classifieds.

This issue welcomes a new president, Dr. Claudia Cavallino.

Saudi Heart Association Position Statement On Early Detection Of Subclinical Atherosclerosis In Clinical Practice, Waleed Alhabeeb, Abdelrahaman Almoghairi, Abdulhalim Kinsara, Abdullah Khoja

Journal of the Saudi Heart Association

Background: Atherosclerosis is the leading underlying cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which remains the primary cause of mortality in Saudi Arabia. Saudi patients experience CVD events nearly a decade earlier than their Western counterparts. Given the limitations of traditional risk assessment tools, there is a growing need to detect subclinical atherosclerosis to refine risk stratification and improve primary prevention strategies, particularly in younger and asymptomatic individuals.

Methods: The Saudi Heart Association (SHA) developed this position statement through a structured, multistep process that included a comprehensive literature review and two expert panel meetings. Recommendations were formulated based on current evidence, expert …

Prevalence And Characteristics Of Prescription Errors In Community Pharmacies In Mbarara City, South Western Uganda, Tadele Mekuriya Yadesa, Ashaba Comfort, Komukyeya Esther Marvel, Namakula Angela, Tikolu Hope Nancy, Narayana Goruntla, Sarad Pawar Naik Bukke, Bontu Aschale Abebe, Efrata Ashuro Shegena

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

A prescription error is a failure in the prescription writing process that results in a wrong instruction about one or more of the standard features of a prescription. Most adverse drug events are preventable through promoting rational drug use; primarily by mitigating the outstanding high burden of prescribing errors. The main aim of this study is to assess the prevalence and characteristics of prescription errors in the community pharmacies in Mbarara, Uganda. A cross-sectional study was conducted in selected community pharmacies in Mbarara City, South Western Uganda. Consecutive sampling of all prescriptions availed at the selected pharmacies was conducted until …

A Prognostic Matrix Gene Expression Signature Defines Functional Glioblastoma Phenotypes And Niches, Monika Vishnoi, Zeynep Dereli, Zheng Yin, Elisabeth K Kong, Meric Kinali, Kisan Thapa, Ozgun Babur, Kyuson Yun, Nourhan Abdelfattah, Xubin Li, Behnaz Bozorgui, Mary C Farach-Carson, Robert C Rostomily, Anil Korkut

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Interactions among tumor, immune, and vascular niches play major roles in glioblastoma (GBM) malignancy and treatment responses. The composition and heterogeneity of extracellular core matrix proteins (CMPs) that mediate such interactions are not well understood. Here, we present an analysis of the clinical relevance of CMP expression in GBM at bulk, single-cell, and spatial anatomical resolution. We show that CMP enrichment is associated with worse patient survival, specific driver oncogenic alterations, mesenchymal state, pro-tumor immune infiltration, and immune checkpoint expression. Matrisome expression is enriched in vascular and leading edge/infiltrative niches that are known to harbor glioma stem cells. Finally, we …

Precision Targeting Of Sting: Challenges, Innovations, And Clinical Outlook For Cancer Therapy, Jiaqi Shi, Yingying Zhang, Na Zhao, Ekihiro Seki, Li Ma, Gordana Kocic, Xiaobo Li, Janoš Terzić, Tongsen Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway plays a crucial role in immune responses and has emerged as a compelling target in cancer therapy. Despite promising preclinical studies, clinical trials of STING agonists have largely failed to deliver durable efficacy, with no agents progressing to phase III trials. This review examines the biological, pharmacological, and clinical barriers limiting STING pathway activation in cancer treatment. We discuss the inherent limitations of STING agonists as well as host-related resistance driven by tumor heterogeneity, immune suppression, and chronic STING activation. Mechanisms of acquired resistance, such as immune checkpoint upregulation and suppression of effector …

Accurate Chromatin Marks Peak Calling With Omnipeak, Oleg Shpynov, Maxim N Artyomov

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) is a widely used technique for identifying transcription-factor binding and histone modifications across the genome. Peaks in ChIP-seq data vary in length depending on the biological context, from narrow transcription factor binding sites to broad histone modification domains. However, commonly used peak-calling tools are tailored to the specific types of data and struggle to consistently handle various peak lengths, datasets of varying quality, and missing control tracks-common issues in comparative or meta-analyses. These limitations are addressed with Omnipeak, a universal unsupervised peak-calling algorithm based on a constrained three-state hidden Markov model. Omnipeak accurately models global genomic …

Stakeholder Perspectives On Humanistic Implementation Of Computer Perception In Health Care: Qualitative Study, Kristin M Kostick-Quenet, Meghan E Hurley, Syed Ayaz, John D Herrington, Casey J Zampella, Julia Parish-Morris, Birkan Tunç, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Computer perception (CP) technologies-including digital phenotyping, affective computing, and related passive sensing approaches-offer unprecedented opportunities to personalize health care, especially mental health care, yet they also provoke concerns about privacy, bias, and the erosion of empathic, relationship-centered practice. At present, it remains elusive what stakeholders who design, deploy, and experience these tools in real-world settings perceive as the risks and benefits of CP technologies.

Objective: This study aims to explore key stakeholder perspectives on the potential benefits, risks, and concerns associated with integrating CP technologies into patient care. A better understanding of these concerns is crucial for responding to …

Β2 And Β3a Regulatory Subunits Can Coassemble In The Same Bk Channels, Yu Zhou, Vivian Gonzalez-Perez, Xiao-Ming Xia, Gopal S Kallure, Sandipan Chowdhury, Christopher J Lingle

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Ca2+- and voltage-activated BK-type K+ channels are influenced profoundly by associated regulatory subunits, including β subunits (Kcnmb1-4; β1-β4). Although overlap in expression of different BK β subunits occurs in native tissues, whether they can coassemble in the same channel complex is not known. We coexpress β2 and β3a subunits together with BK α and, through a combination of macroscopic and single-channel recordings, along with quantitative pull-down of tagged subunits, test whether coassembly can occur. We evaluate two models: (1) random mixing in which β2 and β3a subunits coassemble in the same channels, and (2) segregation in which β2 and β3a …

Towards A Unified Gating Scheme For The Cnbd Ion Channel Family, Jenna L Lin, Baron Chanda

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Cyclic nucleotide-binding domain (CNBD) channels are critical components of numerous bioelectrical processes, including cardiac pacemaking, neuronal signaling, phototransduction in the eye, and stomatal regulation in plants. While members of this channel family share a conserved overall structure, they exhibit striking differences in voltage sensitivity. Hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide-gated channels are activated by membrane hyperpolarization, whereas ether-à-go-go channels open upon depolarization. Mutagenesis and chimeragenesis studies have revealed that some mutants display bipolar gating behavior-remaining closed at intermediate membrane potentials but capable of opening in response to both hyperpolarization and depolarization. Remarkably, in certain cases, just a few mutations are sufficient to reverse …

Micrornas In Prostate Cancer Liquid Biopsies: Early Detection, Prognosis, And Treatment Monitoring, Seyyed Mohammad Yaghoubi, Erfan Zare, Sina Jafari Dargahlou, Maryam Jafari, Mahdiye Azimi, Maedeh Khoshnazar, Solmaz Shirjang, Behzad Mansoori

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a common malignancy in men worldwide, with incidence projected to rise in the coming years. Traditional screening and diagnostic methods, such as prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and biopsy, face limitations in specificity and invasiveness. Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as stable, non-invasive biomarkers obtainable via liquid biopsies (blood, urine, semen) that could transform PCa management. These small regulatory RNAs reflect underlying tumor biology and are detectable at early disease stages, enabling improved early detection when used alongside or in place of PSA. Distinct miRNA expression patterns correlate with tumor aggressiveness. For example, miR-141 and miR-375 are …

Celltra: Aligning Cell Names With Gene Expression Via A Pathway-Informed Transformer, Zhao Li, Zaiyi Zheng, Rongbin Li, Wenbo Chen, Yuntao Yang, Meer A Ali, Jundong Li, W Jim Zheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Motivation: Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq) technology enables detailed exploration of gene expression at the individual cell level, crucial for annotating cell types and understanding cellular diversity. Traditional methods for cell type annotation often rely on marker genes and manual labeling, posing challenges due to low data quality and incomplete reference datasets.

Results: We developed CeLLTra, a novel contrastive learning framework that leverages a Transformer-based model integrating biological pathway information to group genes into super tokens, effectively capturing comprehensive gene expression from scRNA-Seq data. By combining this pathway-informed Transformer with a pretrained domain-specific language model, CeLLTra accurately aligns cell-type annotations with …